Schools

Planning underway for Brush school projects

Work at elementary schools spring to fall 2019; middle/high school expected to open January 2020

By Jenni Grubbs

Times Staff Writer

Posted:
09/12/2017 05:02:26 PM MDT

Brush School District RE-2J Superintendent Bill Wilson listens to a question from a district resident during an October 2016 meeting about the mill levy override and BEST grant and school bonding ballot issues put before voters and ultimately passed that year. Planning is currently underway for the construction projects on the middle school/high school and on additional space at the elementary schools being funded through the school bonds and BEST grant, Wilson said. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times file photo)

Big changes may still be a ways away for Brush schools, but planning for construction work is well underway, according to Brush School District Superintendent Dr. Bill Wilson.

The most impressive change will happen at the middle school and high school level, but there also will be some work happening at the two elementary schools, and the superintendent recently discussed both sets of projects and where they stand with the Fort Morgan Times.

Middle school/high school

Over the next couple years, the school district will build a new campus for sixth to 12 grades on the site of the current high school.

Funding for that project is coming in part from the state through around $27.63 million in BEST grant funding and also through up to $38.5 million in school bonds to be sold by the state on behalf the Brush School District.

These school bond sales will start the first week of December, Wilson said. There are other Colorado school districts holding elections this November with ballot issues seeking bonding, and the results of those elections are needed before the state starts selling the bonds, he explained.

Some things that now are set, though, are the general contractor, architecture firm and owner's representative consulting firm for the project, Wilson said.

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As part of receiving the BEST grant, the school district was required by the state to use a very specific competitive bid process for deciding which contractors and architects would be used for building the new campus for sixth to 12th grades on the site of the current high school, he said, as well as the consultants serving as the owner's representative.

Adolfson & Peterson Construction of Aurora was the successful bidder to be the general contractor. Gibson, Mancini, Carmichael & Nelson of Garden City, Kansas, was selected as the architect. And consulting firm Cooperative Strategies, which worked with the Keep the Beet Alive Community Steering Committee in 2016 to promote the mill levy override and bond issue, was selected as the owner's representative.

The project is currently in the "programming design and development stage," Wilson said.

As such, weekly team meetings are being held, with representatives from each of these firms and the school district attending. The lead architect, owner's representative, pre-construction manager, project manager and project superintendent are at these team meetings, and some of them may include the safety director, finance manager, engineers or others, Wilson said.

"Basically, it's a way of ensuring that we stay on our timeline, adjust our timeline as appropriate and reduce any miscommunications that could delay any aspect of the project," he said of the weekly meetings.

As things stand now, there have been some surveys of the property completed, and another one started that was expected to be finished yet this week, Wilson said.

If all goes according to plan, including with the weather, Brush residents could see dirt start getting moved at the site in early February, he said, and the work on the foundation would begin in March.

The overall plan is to fully open the new campus for classes in January in 2020, which would fit the expectation from BEST that the school would be open within three years of receipt of the grant funding.

"Our goal is no disruption to the education process during this project," Wilson said of much of the construction work happening while school is in session.

He said that there likely will be distractions for the students and teachers during that work, but there also could be learning opportunities for students interested in pursuing trades, like masonry, plumbing and electrical, to see professional trade workers in action.

"It's right there happening," Wilson said, and with "a little notice and planning," the students could watch. The superintendent sounded quite excited about this potential learning opportunity for Brush students.

And even before the larger parts of the construction begin, there will be some "challenges" the school district and high school and middle school students and parents will face during the construction phases.

One of the biggest ones will be changes in how people get into and leave the existing high school building, particularly the part that was added in 2005 that will remain in place but see alterations being made to it.

But that just means needing some signage directing people about the changes and where to go, especially in the case of emergencies.

There will be "some impact to parking and traffic flow," Wilson said. The school district will need to get new traffic studies completed as the project unfolds, since it will be a bigger building offering more activities, along with other regular transportation issues.

"It should be even more interesting because of the development of Love's on Hospital Road and Mill Street," Wilson said. "That intersection should become busier."

Another anticipated challenge is the "loss of practice space for our recreation programs," since the current practice field to the north is where construction will be happening, along with being used as a staging area by the contractor.

However, the school district does have an "unimproved" field between Thomson Primary School and Beetdigger Stadium, and the plan is to turn that into a new practice field. Wilson said maintenance staff would be clearing it and getting it seeded for grass yet this fall, so as to start making it usable by next spring and ready for the following fall.

"That's really the key to this," Wilson said, "making sure we've thought through all the inconveniences, collateral damage" from the construction and related coming changes to current facilities and their uses.

But he acknowledged that there are many different variables that are not under the school district or the construction team's control, especially the weather.

"I think the challenge lies in the proper planning and timing of things," he said, and then adjusting things as needed depending on what happens with snow or rain or the like.

The school district is counting on the new middle school/high school campus to last for the next 50 years once it is completed, Wilson said, so they want to make sure they are doing everything possible to anticipate what would be needed both now and in the future.

Elementary schools

The school district will sell local school bonds to fund the changes happening at Thomson Primary School and Beaver Valley Elementary School, but a date for those bond sales to begin has yet to be set.

"We're still determining when the best time to sell our portion of the bonds for our elementary school projects," Wilson said. "We're trying to position ourselves optimally," so they are sold "not too far ahead of the project" along with during a time with favorable interest rates to provide "the best bang for our buck."

The plan is to use the around $6 million in local school bonds being sold for building new multipurpose spaces to serve the two elementary schools. They would need to function as storm shelters, but also be flexible enough for use as classrooms or for other needs, Wilson said. Specifically at Thomson the new space would replace the two modular buildings currently in place, and the one at Beaver Valley would have a space suitable for a music room for both choral and band classes.

"Part of where we're moving to is a more personalized approach to learning," Wilson said, so the more flexible the new spaces could be, the more the school district would be able to adjust their uses to the students' needs.

But the storm shelter aspects of the building are extremely important, Wilson said, since neither Beaver Valley, nor Thomson has a "FEMA-rated area" in those structures.

"That wasn't required when they were built," he said.

The current plan is for the two elementary projects to be undertaken and completed in 2019, Wilson said, with each one taking about five months. Likely, the extra space for Thomson would be built from March to August, and the one for Beaver Valley would be built from May to October.

But Wilson cautioned that those plans were subject to change due to weather, site conditions or any number of other variables.

Between all of the school construction projects Brush has coming up, the overall goal is for them to be forward-thinking enough to last the school district for a long time. Wilson said wanted to make sure the school district would not have to come back and ask voters for more funding anytime in the near future.

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